Vox by Christina Dalcher, A Terrifying Debut

Something happened when the world of Hulu discovered Margaret Atwood and disseminated her terrifying, futuristic "The Handmaid's Tale" to the universe. When I first read that novel it was considered science fiction. Now? Well, not so much.
 
Then Louise Erdrich jumped on the bandwagon with "The Future Home of the Living God," a frightening diversion from her usual work. Today I finished "Vox," a debut novel that I feared would be a copycat. But as I listened to myself go on and on about it in a phone conversation with my sister, I realized that Christina Dalcher had me hooked.

The word vox is from the Latin for voice. The premise of Dalcher's novel is that under a newly elected American president with a penchant for dictatorial behavior - ahem - women and girls will no longer be heard from. No more pussy hat marches, no more "opinionated" women in the halls of government, in fact all women and girls are now limited to one hundred words a day. They are no longer allowed to read, write, go to school, or work.

How, you might ask, could such a deprivation be perpetrated on half the country's population? Not without the complicity of the men in our lives! Women and girls are fitted with bracelets that resemble the ubiquitous fitbits. And, in fact, the bracelet is a counter. But rather than count steps and calories burned, it keeps track of words spoken. Over one hundred words and the initial electrical shock is tolerable, until it isn't.

Dr. Jean McClellan's husband Patrick actually works for the new administration and, though he seems empathetic to the plight of his wife and daughter Sonia, it just doesn't feel like he's doing enough. Then suddenly Jean receives a call from the president's office. Her special skills as a scientist who once researched a cure for aphasia, a brain injury that results in an inability to communicate, are desperately needed. It seems that the president's brother has sustained such an injury in a skiing mishap.

Reunited with her core research team which includes Lorenzo, an Italian mathematician with whom she once had a torrid affair, she barters with the administration, unlimited words for herself and her daughter in exchange for her work. But, of course, the time frame is tight and once the work is completed what will happen? Sinister observers are everywhere, listening, watching. Phones and computers are confiscated at the end of the day and uncomfortably full body searches are de rigueur.

Will the president be so grateful that he'll let Jean and Sonia slide? What about all the other women and girls out there, the female babies still to be born? What about her neighbors and friends, women who are committing suicide in huge numbers, women who are sent to work farms in the west for transgressions that range from self-induced abortion to adultery to having the "wrong" sexual orientation?

Christina Dalcher has a remarkable CV. This may be her first novel but she's been writing for years. http://christinadalcher.com/ What's so terrifying about the world she has created is that it takes place in the here and now, not some future time. It sounds oh, so plausible in light of the current political climate. I imagine that she will be getting plenty of press coverage when this book is released at the end of August (I was fortunate to have received an advanced copy) so you may want to get yourselves on the wait list now. You'll probably read it in one sitting and never look at your fitbit in the same way!